Pecan Bowls

some pieces of Pecan Log that my inlaws brought down. the first two pics are from bowls turned this weekend. The last pic shows an older pecan bowel I posted before just as a size reference. the first bowl was left natural, the other two bowels are tung oiled.

Pecan is a little hard to come by out here on the west coast. It looks like a great wood for turning.

I have a suggestion you might try. On the bowl with the checking in the knot,try filling the cracks with thick super glue; either by itself or pack it with some fine sawdust first and then add the super glue. Thick super glue will create a clear filling by itself and adding sawdust will look more like a wood patch. I like the thick form of the glue because is sets up slowly and that allows it to seep into the crack and completely fill it. This also works well to stop a crack from getting worse if they start to show up during the turning process and if you stop it soon enough you can often turn past it and have no crack at all. I have salvaged a lot of pieces with this method.Some people also use colored epoxy (car body filler type)....black looks nice. There are also some commercial fillers which I have never tried also used just for decoration.

I’ve seen a few filler ideas, including one around here that puts some of the colored acrylics in to make it really stand out. Because the bowls were being used as change and pocket stuff holders I wasn’t worried about filling. I have used a similar approach to repairing ebony pens with cracks, shaving off as much ebony dust as my patience would allow and mixing it with CA. You are definitely right in that the cracks become almost invisible, and re-turning them with sandpaper, helps to flesh out the blemishes. I’ve got a bit more pecan along with some oak from a hurricane that fell. I’m thinking about finding some of the acrylic, stone looking fillers to see how they fair against the lighter colors.

I have to say I do like the feel of the pecan, for weight and rigid, and can’t wait to get my christmas present up and running to see how thin I can make the walls. :-)